Du Quoin spikers finish 3-2 at SIRR tournament

CARTERVILLE -- The Du Quoin volleyball team got off to a pretty good start at the Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Tournament in Carterville on Saturday.

The Indians finished 3-2 at the season-opening event, which included a quality win over Murphysboro.

"This tournament is tough, and by the end of the day your legs are gone," said Du Quoin coach Isaac Miller. "I'm just coaching the team and not even playing, and I'm dead tired. It's a long day, but I felt like we did a pretty good job. I learned some things about what we can do differently. We made some changes, and we took down Murphy and Frankfort pretty handily."

Pinckneyville eventually won the tournament championship. The SIRR is always a tough league.

"What I saw out of both sides of the conference is that everyone is good," Miller said. "There aren't weak teams, and there will be a lot of parity. Sparta almost beat Nashville and ends up going home fourth in their pool."

The Indians started the day with a victory over Harrisburg and then fell to Carterville in three games.

"We knew the Carterville match was big," Miller said. "We felt like if we won that we still had a chance for gold or silver. But we went on to play Massac, and my brother got me in two."

Massac County finished second overall in the tournament.

"One of our middle hitters, who is a freshman, caught a monster hit right in the head during that match," Miller said. "Loveleen Dunklin was out for the rest of the day. That led to some of our changes. We brought in Jaylynn Wood, and I thought she did really well filling in for us."

Du Quoin moved on to bracket play after the loss to Massac County.

"I think we are going to be a solid team," Miller said. "When you lose, it's almost as important as when you win. We will make some small changes and get better."

This tournament was Du Quoin's first chance to hit the floor this season. Elizabeth Bird has verbally committed to play for John A. Logan College.

"We will lean on her quite a bit this season," Miller said. "She had an injury, and once we get her back to 100 percent, we will be all right."